WE’VE finished up with something of a Cavaliers versus Roundheads final at Euro 2004 with Portugal facing Greece today though I’d say it is a little bit more complicated than that. As a lover of expansive, expressive attacking football, I make no apologies for pinning my colours to the hosts in Lisbon this evening. But, equally, I believe Greece warrant respect for their remarkable achievement in reaching the showpiece of a European Championships.
For the reputation of football, victory for Portugal would be desirable. I have enormous admiration for a team who, in Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, are given width from wingers willing to take men on and dribble with the ball. Add to the mix the
trickery of Deco and the fact that, when pressing forward, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side will commit men in numbers and you have a side geared towards providing entertainment and scoring goals.
I would be sure of Portugal producing both elements in tonight’s final were it not the case that the central weakness of the home team is the absence of a truly top-class No.9 who could be relied upon to plunder strikes in the tightest situations. Their centre-forwards, Nuno Gomes and Pauleta, are all right, and nothing more than that, and it is this that ensures the Greeks cannot be counted out when it comes to pulling off the biggest shock win of a major football tournament.
Their ability to snuff teams out and sneak a goal on the counter-attack has put paid to France and the Czechs, who, pre-tournament, would have been considered more accomplished sides than the Portuguese. And if Greece succeed in getting their noses in front at any stage tonight, I’d then make them slight favourites to complete an extraordinary triumph.
Taking all aspects into consideration, I’d expect Portugal to prevail, even if I thought this of just about every side who have come up against Otto Rehhagel’s team this past month. Greece have defied the odds because they have stuck rigidly to a cautious, man-marking strategy which they have had the organisational qualities and tactical nous to carry off.
Certainly, along the way I consider they have been more than a little fortunate to survive sustained pressure from Spain, France, the Czechs and even, late in their opening win, Portugal themselves. Yet I’m not particularly predisposed towards them because there is a wearying lack of flamboyance about their play and they are not a side ever to cause the pulse to quicken.
If they go a goal ahead tonight, the danger would be that they would kill the final as a spectacle and this cannot ever be applauded. But they deserve respect for maximising whatever talent they have at their disposal. And this they owe to Rehhagel who could set his players up for, as he says, a "fairytale" that has involved them masking their deficiencies when facing opponents possessing greater finesse.
Let it be acknowledged, too, that Greece are no kick-and-rush merchants. Plenty of other teams have come up short in attempting to defend leads, notably the hugely disappointing England. They resorted to booting the ball to safety when sitting on a one-goal advantage against France. Greece have not been guilty of this. An ingredient of their success has been preventing opponents fashioning openings against them through excellent ball retention that has only been possible because, throughout their ranks, they have had technically sound, composed performers.
Defenders such as Traianos Dellas are capable of taking the ball out from the back and finding team-mates and the major difference between Greece and more enterprising sides is what happens next. While the flair sides would shuttle the ball along the field by playing passes to men in more advanced positions, Rehhagel’s team will opt for the pass sideways or backwards.
And the reality is that, if they claim the trophy pursuing such a policy, Euro 2004 might end up being remembered not so much for how teams played but how they did not. The loss of the big guns such as Spain, Germany, Italy, England, and especially holders France prior to the semi-finals has proved one of the outstanding elements of the tournament, but these exits should not overshadow the excellent showings from, principally, Portugal, Greece, the Czechs and Denmark.
It was a crying shame that the Czechs were eliminated by the Greeks in the semi-final because they proved an exhilarating presence in the Iberian peninsula. Not least because of the great goals they netted and, having watched a compendium of these, I believe it ought not to be forgotten how many great strikes we have witnessed in Euro 2004. In addition to a couple each from Milan Barros and Henrik Larsson, we have been treated to peaches from Rui Costa and Maniche, among others.
I know I was a lover of free-kick strikes but it doesn’t concern me that there have been relatively few of these. That is a consequence of the welcome discipline crackdown, which has made players think twice before committing cynical challenges around the penalty area and contributed to an encouragingly clean tournament.
As most commentators have recognised, Euro 2004 will be recalled as a coaches’ contest, the men who make the big decisions having demonstrated just how much comes down to their input. Stand-out here has been Scolari. He has exhibited enormous courage in never shirking from, potentially, unpopular and highly-risky modifications to his team. It takes a brave and astute man to dispense with three-quarters of his backline after one defeat; drop Costa to the bench and haul Figo off to join his fellow golden generation members in the latter stages of important games.
With Rehhagel’s promptings allowing Greece to punch a stratosphere above their weight, it can, at least, be said that contesting the Euro 2004 final are the two coaches who have been the best over the past month. I only hope it is won by the team managed in such a way as to give pleasure to others.
